memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
The Devil in the Dark (episode)
The Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where an unknown monster is destroying machinery and killing the miners, threatening the entire mining operation. Summary On Janus VI, a miner named Schmitter replaces Sam at his guard post. Moments after Chief Vanderberg and the other guards move on, they hear a scream and return to find Schmitter reduced to a crisp. Two days later, the ''Enterprise'' arrives at Janus VI in reponse to a distress call. For the past three months, a mysterious creauture has been terrorizing the mining colony there, resulting in the deaths of over fifty people. Pergium production has come to a halt, and it is the Enterprise crew's job to get it back on track. The deaths have all been caused by a mysterious corrosive acid of an unknown type; this acid has also been used to sabotage machinery on the lower levels. Only one man saw the creature and lived: Ed Appel, who shot it with his phaser type-1 with no effect. As Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discuss possibilities in Vanderberg's office, they are summoned to the colony's nuclear reactor by an alarm. The creature has killed the guard outside, burned its way in, and stolen the reactor's main circulating pump. Scotty says he can rig up a replacement that will last a little while, but without that pump the reactor will go supercritical and irradiate half the planet. Kirk and Spock deduce that they may be dealing with a silicon-based lifeform, rather than the normal carbon-based found throughout the galaxy. This would explain why the creature does not show up on sensors and why it was impervious to Appel's phaser. Kirk summons Giotto and a security team, and has Spock adjust their phaser type-2s to be more effective against silicon. The security team is disptached to level 23, which was opened just before the attacks began. A security man is killed by the creature, bringing Kirk and Spock to the scene. They see the creature, and fire on it, damaging it, but it gets away, tunneling through the rock with its acid. The search teams focus in on where the creature was seen, Attit-26, and Kirk runs into it again. It does not attack him, however, and soon Spock arrives and initiates a Vulcan mind meld with it. He learns that it is a sentient being of a race called the Horta, and was murdering the miners because they were inadvertently killing her children by destroying "useless" silicon nodules that were actually Horta eggs. McCoy manages to cure the Horta's wound with thermal concrete, and she returns the pump. Spock negotiates an agreement between the miners and the Horta; the miners will leave the Horta alone and the baby Horta, soon to begin hatching, will help the miners locate new sources of mineral in the planet. Background Information * Barry Russo would go on to portray Commodore Robert Wesley in TOS: "The Ultimate Computer". Creature shop specialist Prohaska previously portrayed the Talosian menagerie animals in TOS: "The Cage", and would go on as the mugato in TOS: "A Private Little War" and Yarnek in "The Savage Curtain". * This is the acknowledged favorite Star Trek episode of Captain Kirk actor William Shatner whose father died during filming. Shatner insisted on finishing his dialogue scenes and after he left for the funeral, a stand-in completed his shots with Spock and the Horta, filmed from behind. When the scenes were later edited together, in several sequences, Shatner has his phaser up and the stand-in does not. * This is the only episode of TOS in which no female actors appear. The Horta does qualify as a female character, but even it is performed by a man. * A portion of a Horta tunnel will be seen in "Patterns of Force" as the entrance to the Underground's underground. *Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The ninth installment was an adaptation of this episode. * Recycled Horta eggs would later be used in the re-designed Engineering set in the second season. * The reactor for the colony is the same piece of equipment in Engineering that Kirk's double phasered in The Enemy Within. Plot Holes * It is not explained why the crew did not try using phaser rifles against the highly phaser-resistant Horta. Memorable Quotes * "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!" - Leonard McCoy * "I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day." - Leonard McCoy Links and References Main Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * Eddie Paskey as Leslie (Security) Guest Stars * Ken Lynch as Vanderberg * Janos Prohaska as the mother Horta * Barry Russo as Giotto * Brad Weston as Ed Appel * Biff Elliot as Schmitter * George E. Allen as Roberts * Dick Dial as Sam * Davis Roberts as Lewis * Frank da Vinci as Vinci * John Cavett as guard * Ron Veto as Harrison * William Blackburn as Hadley References 2210s; 2240s; cerium; Chamber of the Ages; Distant Past; gold; Horta; Janus VI; Janus VI colony; Osborne; pergium; phaser type-1; phaser type-2; platinum; PXK reactor; silicon; thermal concrete; tricorder; Vault of Tomorrow; Vulcan mind meld; uranium Devil in the Dark, The de:Horta rettet ihre Kinder nl:The Devil in the Dark